I Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of locking and securing devices and more particularly, the invention relates to an adjustable water craft anti-theft device designed to secure boats at a dock and to secure watecraft equipment in either a dock environment or to a water craft.
II. Description of the Related Art
The securing of water craft and associated equipment at marinas and at dockside poses substantial problems. Even in a relatively secure marina, boats and their equipment are easily stolen by a dedicated thief. Typically, boat thieves operate at night and sometimes they won""t even bother to break into a cabin. Instead they will xe2x80x9chot wirexe2x80x9d the ignition if that is accessible. The thief will then motor away to a quiet spot and, by first light, can have changed the boat""s name, registration number and sometimes even the trim colors. While very large boats do not lend themselves particularly to the present invention, certainly equipment aboard large boats can easily be protected by this invention. The present invention relates more nearly to smaller type boats and dinghies and will have applicability to larger boats as appropriate.
While no safeguard is entirely fool proof against a professional and dedicated thief, the goal of the boat owner should be to reduce the opportunities for amateur thieves and to make it as hard as possible for the professionals. Dinghies, especially inflatables, are popular items for surreptitious removal from dockside or from tethers at the main boat. Dinghies usually disappear when they are in the water and tied to a parent boat or a pier. Since dinghies and their outboard engines are expensive items, these are typically stolen with great regularity.
In the past there have been numerous types of devices utilized to secure outboard engines to dinghies, and dinghies to either the parent boat or to a dock, and typically these devices have been a chain with a padlock or a hardened, braided steel cable and a padlock. However, it is typically difficult to find securing hard spots either on the parent boat or a dock to which one can attach a cable and/or a chain with a padlock. Therefore, the goal of the owner is to slow down the thief and to send the thief off in search of easier prey. Therefore, while police experts advise attaching the boat and/or associated accessory equipment to a dock by a hardened chain or cable with a padlock, and since it is difficult to find places to attach either the chain or cable to the boat or to the dock, the most obvious place to attach such a locking device would be to a bollard or to a boat cleat firmly affixed to the dock. The prior art does not know of devices which will specifically attach to a cleat.
For instance, the patent to Jang (No. 5,259,222 ) discloses a stick-shaped car lock device having a sliding lock bar on which circumferential grooves are provided and wherein the lock bar telescopes into a locking cylinder. At the respective ends of the locking device are double U-shaped hooks projecting from the lock bar and the locking cylinder. Each of the U-shaped hooks have all of the elements thereof in a common place. At the midpoint of the locking cylinder, there is a single U-shaped hook having all portions lying in a single plane. The lock device can either lock the steering wheel of a car or lock the combination of the steering wheel and the brake pedal. None of the hooks are in close enough proximity to one another to be able to impinge upon, or interlock with, any of the other hooks to effectively surround an item to be secured thereby to prevent rotation of the locked item within the confines of the lock device.
The patents to Putman et al (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,912,847 and 2,984,096 ) disclose an outboard motor lock which fits around the screw heads of the motor retaining screws to prevent the screws from being unscrewed from the boat transom. The lock comprises nothing more than a pair of telescoping tubes having a slot in each tube cut from one end of each tube a desired distance along the tube wall and designed to encompass the screws to allow the respective tube to enclose the screw heads to prevent the screw heads from being rotated. After the screw heads are encompassed in the telescoping tubes, a lock is placed through the tubes to lock the tubes together.
The devices of the prior art, while effective in limited situations, were never sufficient to handle securing boats and equipment situations over a wide variety of situations. For instance, prior devices could not handle with one device, cleat-to-cleat securing, cleat to post securing, large boat securing, small boat and dinghy securing along with the securing of houseboats, cruisers, sailboats and the securing of equipment such as outboard engines.
In accordance with the present invention and the contemplated problems which have and continue to exist in this field, the objectives of this invention are to provide an adjustable locking and securing anti-theft device for water craft designed to secure boats at a dock, and to secure water craft equipment either to the parent boat or to a dock by utilization of a braided aircraft type steel cable attached to a specialized, adjustable locking fitting which may be utilized in a manner not heretofore known.
The present invention is applicable to the following situations, among others:
(a) Boat cleat to dock cleat.
(b) Boat cleat to dock bollard or post.
(c) Boat cleat to mooring ring.
(d) Boat cleat to dinghy or tender cleat.
(e) Boat cleat to accessories by looping the cable around the accessory.
The invention accomplishes the above and other objectives with a specialized adjustable anti-theft water craft locking mechanism having specialized fittings which will fit around and about various size and style of cleats and rings which will be impossible to remove without great effort. The invention described herein accomplishes these objects with three (3) separate embodiments. The first embodiment discloses a locking mechanism having a serrated sliding lock bar capable of sliding into a locking cylinder, and wherein each half of the locking mechanism has attached a locking leg of steel bent to a specific shape to encompass the horns of the base of the cleat and to be slidingly engaged therewith when the sliding lock bar is securely fastened to the locking cylinder. Additionally, the mechanism is so shaped that the locking legs interact with one another so that when completely closed, the interaction of the locking legs will prevent rotation of the two halves of the main body and subsequent opening when the locking legs are enclosing a cable or a mooring ring in a securing situation.
Another embodiment discloses a locking system in which the horns of the cleat are totally encompassed by an elongated tubular securing ring on each of the sliding lock bar and the locking cylinder, and wherein the securing ring has a substantial length to encompass the large portion of the cleat horns. In all instances, the sliding lock bar and the locking cylinder, and associated locking mechanisms, are the same.
Another embodiment of the invention discloses a similar type of cleat engaging mechanism wherein the locking legs are replaced, for economy sake, with steel rings attached to the sliding lock bar and the locking cylinder so that the horns of the cleat would fit within the circular rings to accomplish the locking action.
Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings showing the preferred embodiment of the invention.